Should have Put a Leash On It (13 page)

Micah stayed silent because what Skylar was saying was eerily similar to what he’d been thinking himself.

Skylar turned those ice blue eyes on him. “Maybe talking to me would be easier than your brothers as I don’t have a history with either you or Rylan.”

Micah figured he might have a point. “I remember the very first day Rylan came to the pack, he was five years old and had the biggest green eyes I’d ever seen. I was sixteen and saw him standing next to Dad, who was handing him over to a nice couple that hadn’t managed to have pups of their own. Rylan was crying and I went over to see if he was okay...”

Micah went on to tell Skylar about the times over the years that he and Rylan had locked horns. He even told Skylar about his difficulty reading, how he’d resented Rylan for being so smart and about the two times Rylan had asked him out. “It seems inevitable that we don’t get along.”

“All the things you’ve told me about, every time you were close to being together something got in the way, whether it was age difference or a well-placed insult that you’ve never quite forgiven Rylan for. Perhaps instead viewing the events as obstacles you should consider that you and Rylan are meant to be together and that is why your paths keep crossing.” Skylar sounded so certain, but Micah still wasn’t convinced.

“That’s romantic and all, but—and I keep saying this and it’s killing me little by little every time—there’s no mate pull between us.” Micah wanted so badly to believe in what the vampire was saying. He wanted to feel like he had when Rylan had called him his again.

“Yes, there is.”

Micah leaped to his feet and spun around to see Rylan standing in the open doorway, wearing a clean dark blue t-shirt and faded blue jeans with the top button undone. The fact that he hadn’t scented Rylan or heard him enter was a testament to how swept away he was in the stories he was sharing with Skylar.

“What?” Micah glanced from Rylan to Skylar, getting a sinking feeling that he’d been set up. He hated being made a fool of.

“Wait, please.” It was the sheer longing in Rylan’s voice that made him stay.

“Why?”

“Come to my room. We need to talk about this. Don’t run again,” Rylan pleaded.

“Why should I? You two have clearly set me up.” Micah’s anger bled into his voice.

“Come with me because I can feel the mate pull. I don’t know why, but your scent has changed and you smell like mine. Please, Micah. I know I shouldn’t have listened, but I was on my way to the kitchen to eat my weight in bacon and I heard you say my name. I should have announced myself when you didn’t acknowledge me, but I was sucked into the stories. I didn’t know you remembered all that. You even knew what I was wearing when I met you.”

“A shifter’s scent doesn’t change except for when they mature and...”

“...and when they mate,” Skylar finished. “I am sorry for the deception. I only want to help you both clear the air. I did not expect you to open up like that, Micah. However, Rylan is right. Your scent has changed.”

Micah had had enough. “Just stop. I’ve had enough of people telling me what to do and telling me I’m stupid. I feel no mate pull. I feel no differently toward Rylan than I always have.”

“Because you’ve always loved him,” Skylar interrupted.

“Yes, I—” Micah froze as he realized what he’d admitted to, hands clenching on his jean-clad thighs. He stepped back when Rylan came toward him.

Skylar took advantage of Micah’s temporary disorientation and tried to calm down the volatile situation.

“Micah, you just shared with me years of memories, all about Rylan. You talk about him as if he is the base from which the rest of your life revolves. You’ve always loved him, but I think your wolf didn’t view him as a mate until he matured, by which time you’d firmly placed him into the little brother’s friend category. Then you were gone and the physical distance made it easier to keep Rylan in that neat little box.”

“Stay out of this. I treated you like family, shared things I haven’t with others and you just spat on that trust by setting me up,” Micah growled, feeling as if the walls were closing in around him.

Skylar flinched and part of him wanted to apologize, but he was in the right here. Micah would never have opened his mouth if he thought someone else would be listening to what he was saying.

“I apologize. I only wanted to help.” Skylar swallowed and there was the unmistakable quiver in his voice that said the vampire was close to tears.

Micah caved. He was a soft touch when it came to tears. “Thank you for caring, but I would have preferred to be warned. I don’t like being laughed at.”

“We’d never laugh at you,” Rylan gasped, sounding upset that Micah would even say that.

He threw his hands in the air and turned back to Rylan. The shifter looked a damn sight better than he had earlier. The way Rylan stood showed there was little or no pain and the nasty burn that had been blistered and angry now just looked red and tender. “What do you want from me, Rylan?”

“I want you to think about the possibility that Skylar is right. I’m not lying when I say you smell like mine. I don’t know why or how you smell different now. I know I bit you a lot when we had sex. When I asked you what happened, it wasn’t because I didn’t remember. My brain just hadn’t caught up to my mouth.” Rylan sounded sincere, but Micah was too wary to take a chance.

“We can’t just suddenly be mates!”

This was ridiculous. There was no way in hell that Micah had agreed to mate Rylan. It took more than a bite to bind shifters together.

Micah stormed out of the room, but instead of going in the direction of the stairs like he had planned, he instead turned to go to Rylan’s room. He stopped dead when he smelled one of his brothers. “Stop hiding, Sage.”

The sneaky wolf stepped around the corner wearing an embarrassed smile. “Sorry. For once I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

Micah accepted the answer and continued toward Rylan’s room.

“Wait!”

Micah knew even before Sage rushed at him that his brother had an opinion about what he’d heard.

“If your wolf repressed the knowledge that Rylan is your mate, then he may have accepted Rylan’s claim when you two had sex if you promised to be his. Your wolves could have taken that as agreement in place of the traditional words and mated you,” Sage finished in a rush.

Micah remembered repeatedly telling Rylan
he belonged to him. “Oh, fuck no.”

“Is it that bad being mated to me?”

He pegged Sage with a glare for not warning him that Rylan had followed him and his brother winced. “My bad, sorry.” Again, Rylan had sneaked up on him. At this rate Micah was going to have to resign as beta because his nerves and senses were shot. He needed to get some sleep. A quick glance at his watch revealed that he had been awake for over eighty-seven hours.

Sage gave him a strange look that seemed wistful and filled with regret at the same time. “Take a chance, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.” Before Micah could process the words or ask what Sage meant, his brother was gone. He hated when Sage did that.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need some sleep.” He swiveled his head to stare at Rylan. The other man seemed to be taking all of this very calmly. “If we’re mates, then my wolf won’t tolerate me sleeping away from you, I already feel like you’re too far away.”

The need to be with Rylan that he’d felt in the bar was now multiplied exponentially and it was a physical itch. He wasn’t blind to the fact that it had coincided with finding out Rylan might be his mate. Every moment he had to digest Skylar’s interpretation of things and the new information from Sage, the more Micah had to admit that it was possible.

His wolf was suspiciously quiet about everything, like a cat that didn’t want to acknowledge any attention from its owner, but was aware of everything around it.

Remembering Sage’s words, Micah mustered up a smile. “Do you mind if I bunk with you, please?”

Rylan blinked in surprise, but quickly nodded and ran ahead to open the bedroom door. He followed and hoped that come morning he would be able to make sense of everything.

The first thing Micah was aware of when he woke was that he felt completely content. The second thing was that a warm body smelling like apples was tightly curled around him.

Blearily, Micah opened his eyes and looked around. Blue walls. He must be in Rylan’s room again. He’d never been in the bed before, however.

He raised his head enough to see Rylan’s face. He was still sleeping soundly, but Micah must have moved enough to disturb him because Rylan’s arms wound tighter around him and he snuggled closer.

Taking stock, Micah thought about everything that had happened. Now that he’d actually gotten some sleep, his emotions weren’t all over the place and he wasn’t a big mass of anger and confusion. It was the first moment of peace he’d had since Rylan was abducted.

That spoke volumes in itself. Okay, a list would help. Mom always made lists when she wasn’t sure about something. It used to drive their dad crazy when he was alive. On the one hand Micah didn’t want to believe that he’d deluded himself into not seeing Rylan was his mate and he still wasn’t convinced that was even possible. On the other hand what Sage and Skylar said did have some merit because a wolf in his old pack had had to wait years for his mate to mature and by the time she was of age the wolf had been desperate to claim her.

If Micah’s wolf had recognized that Rylan was theirs, he might have repressed it. They had both been too young and the age difference would have been torture. It would also explain why his wolf never liked any of his hookups. And why he felt so wistful when he saw Remy and Zeke with their mates.

Micah reached up to finger the bite marks on his neck. They were all still there. Only mating marks would have stayed this long. With the exception of the scars on his back, nothing else had ever scarred. That was another point in favor of the theory of Rylan being his mate. As he continued to trace the bite marks, his placid cock began to fill, another mate indication. Mating marks were incredibly stimulating. Rylan had definitely claimed him.

Micah’s wolf was calm, but it wanted something. Gazing down at the untouched expanse of skin on Rylan’s neck, he could guess what his wolf wanted. Rylan had marked him and their wolves were bonded now whether they wanted them to be or not according to Sage’s take on things. But Micah had yet to mark Rylan so the bond was mostly one sided.

Rylan murmured and stretched, coming awake slowly, nuzzling into his chest. Micah looked down as Rylan lifted his head.

The second green eyes met his, Micah knew what the real answer was. “Holy fucking shit. You’re really my mate.” He could talk about it and try to rationalize it all, but the punch to the gut when Rylan looked at him like Micah was his whole world spoke volumes. It was the way Remy looked at Skylar and how Zeke and Ashlock looked at each other.

Rylan frowned and blinked. “Not the most romantic way to wake up with someone.”

Micah blushed. “Uh, sorry.”

“That’s okay. I figure you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

“How are you taking this so well?” Never, in all the time he’d known Rylan had the wolf taken surprises and being told what to do well. Micah couldn’t resist dropping his hand to brush through Rylan’s hair. It was a little greasy from not being cared for. “You need a shower.” The words were out before he thought about them.

A charmer he was not.

Luckily Rylan rolled his eyes and took it in good humor. “Duh, I’ve been desperate for one since I got out of that damn hospital bed. Maybe you can help me out with that?” Micah would have to cut off his nose to not be able to smell the sweet scent of arousal as something hard poked him in the side. It was tempting, too tempting. First he had to know.

“Seriously, Rylan. Answer my question.”

Rylan pulled back and shrugged, seeming to really think about Micah’s question. “I was attracted to you at sixteen and I wanted you as mine when I was nineteen. I just didn’t know how badly until you guys found me and brought me home. Jake came over to take some more samples. Maybe he’ll be able to tell us why I can suddenly feel the mate pull. But you’re definitely my mate.” Rylan’s eyes narrowed to slits. “And there is nothing you can do about it. I marked you—you’re mine.”

The feral, possessive tone should have bothered him, but if he was honest, Micah found it kind of hot. No one had actually cared enough about him to want him for their own.

“Yes, sir,” he said with a suggestive smile.

Rylan’s eyes flared and Micah laughed delightedly. Perhaps this was what Zeke meant about dominance not mattering with his mate. Before, Micah would never have made such a joke.

Micah rolled out of bed and pulled his shirt up over his head. He kept his eyes on Rylan as he undid the buttons of his jeans and pushed them down. He wasn’t wearing underwear, so he was completely bare in front of the other male.

He spread his arms wide and did a slow turn. “Like what you see?”

“Yes, I definitely do.” Rylan panted, short of breath, stare locked onto Micah’s neck.

In the shower, Micah had just finished rinsing the soap out of his eyes when wet heat enveloped his hard cock. He looked down, water running over his face and stinging his eyes.

Rylan was on the floor of the large walk-in shower, kneeling and lapping at his cock. Damn, Rylan was good at that.

“Ah-ah. You’re not going to distract me that easily again. It’s my turn to claim you.” Micah tried to sound stern, but he was a little too geared up to pull it off.

Rylan popped off his cock, his eyes wide, and Micah picked up on the spike in lust even through the steam. “You want to...” The shifter squirmed, sizeable erection bobbing with the movement.

Oh this was fun. Micah decided to push further. “Claim you, fuck you, make you scream, make you come so hard you can’t move after or love you so much you’ll be sick of me before the week is out. Which one were you thinking of?”

Rylan licked his lips and got to his feet, never looking away from him. “All of them.”

Micah took hold of Rylan’s waist and encouraged him closer. He grinned when Rylan didn’t hesitate to come to him. The hot water streaming from the shower poured over them both as Micah stepped back, bringing Rylan with him. The steam and water made it feel like the two of them were in their own little space, a world of their own making.